General Election 2017: Labour Manifesto Draft Leaked

[naomi24]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39877439

Your thoughts?

[-Talbot-]

Stress that any leader should be "extremely cautious" about using Trident nuclear weapons, which leader Jeremy Corbyn opposes

Jeremy thinks the use of Trident is the very last option ... the penultimate option is surrendering.

[ToraToraTora]

The longest suicide note in history?

[woofgang]

so now we know.....Corbyn works for the Conservatives.....

[-Talbot-]

Good luck in getting Corbynistas to get involved in the thread.
I can't get any Labour political animals to take the bait on my thread about e prosecutions of British soldiers re NI

[Khandro]

Corbyn is actually a communist who has infiltrated the Labour party and destroyed it from within, which is highly regrettable. As far as the Right is concerned he is a 'useful idiot', but as far as British politics in general, I can't see how a balanced opposition can ever be attained with him as leader and he refuses to go.
There is now talk of at least 100 Labour MPs forming a completely new party, and why not?

[naomi24]

Talbot, I thought it strange that this news had been ignored on here this morning ... but on second thoughts perhaps not.

[Togo]

Seeing as the lefties are all stuck in the 70s, should they not be sporting mullet haircuts á la Rod Stewart? With great big platform shoes and, flared, crushed velvet trousers.

[Kromovaracun]

Renationalising rail mail and energy - seems like Corbyn wants to return to the Thatcher era....

Personally I don't find many of the policies objectionable. Alas, they'll never happen.

[Peter Pedant]

// so now we know.....Corbyn works for the Conservatives.....//

hi woofie - we had a staff committee chairman who was so pro employer we thought he was a management plant .....

[andy-hughes]

The general consensus is that Mr Corbyn has no actual interest in winning this election (probably just as well!) - but he is keen to return the labour Party to what he sees as its correct position on the left of politics as against its current centrist slot.

On that basis, it matter not what his manifesto says, because he is never going to be called on to implement its promises, so he can be as fanciful as he likes - and he certainly is.

[andy-hughes]

Kromo - I have always abhorred the Tory obsession with market forces, and their notion that you can run public services for profit as private companies.

But I am realistic enough to know that re-nationalisation remains a dream - along with the rest of Mr Corbyn's ideas.

[jno]

Nationalising mail is probably flogging a dead horse. But I think selling off railways has done little for users. And a country that relies on energy from abroad can barely call itself sovereign, having the Chinese build nuclear power stations seems a huge risk.

[jno]

Andy, the government has had to nationalise banks and railways in recent years.

[Kromovaracun]

Yeah, that's about my feeling as well Andy - with the possible exception of Rail, which I think could probably be done if it was pitched correctly to the public.

Corbyn doesn't have the political capital (or the judgement) to do that, though. It's very disheartening as I am sympathetic to many of his policy goals, but his lack of judgement is going to get the party slaughtered and hand power to the Tories until I am an old man.

At present his only ghost of a chance is a) some massive unforeseen PR disaster for the Tories, and it would have to be very serious; b) May seriously cocking up in the TV special. And I mean cocking up on the level of insulting an audience member's grandma or having a breakdown and smothering herself in peanut oil or something.

[Togo]

//or having a breakdown and smothering herself in peanut oil or something. //

Crikey is she going on Masterchef or Bake Off or something? Gonna cook Corbies goose mind. :))

[Kromovaracun]

I will say I don't think it's entirely Corbyn's faction that has destroyed the Labour party. I think the situation is actually much worse than that. If it was just a coup by insurgent radicals (as is often represented), it would be a matter of removing them and returning to normal. But when you remember what that "normal" was two years ago, it seems the whole of the party seems to have given up entirely on power.

Corbyn's lot on the one hand are (justly) criticised for putting their ideals above winning votes. But the supposedly pragmatic centrists in the party seem no less detached from reality to me, as that catastrophically bodged coup last year showed. Then I remember the leadership election when Corbyn initially won, and the sheer mediocrity and lack of imagination that characterised every other candidate. The party has no way of reconciling its contradictory support base.

Even if Corbyn staves the inevitable by resigning after this election, I'm not totally convinced the Labour party is going to exist much longer.

[ToraToraTora]

" And I mean cocking up on the level of insulting an audience member's grandma or having a breakdown and smothering herself in peanut oil or something. " - even then she'd win, there is no alternative.

[youngmafbog]

Party wrecked, just at the time it is really needed.

Corbyn and his commie allies in the unions and Momentum should hang their heads in shame.

I hope the 100 odd MP's do form a party. preferably center left to a) give voters a real choice and b) keep the Government in check.

Whilst I am an ardent Tory supporter, unlike those on the left I do realise a one party (yes I know there are others but they wont win) State is not good for the country. All you need is a Tory Bliar and we are all doomed.

[ToraToraTora]

it's loyal Labour voters like mikey that get some sympathy from me, I understand they could never bring themselves to vote Tory and respect that and I think they privately hate what has happened to their party. They are in effect disenfranchised, in effect forced to vote for their party regardless, some may not vote or vote for a minor party. Labour are in effect down to their hard core voters, those that would never change come what May. (see what I did there?)

[naomi24]

TTT, //it's loyal Labour voters like mikey that get some sympathy from me, I understand they could never bring themselves to vote Tory and respect that //

No sympathy or respect for that from me. Those people cling to the unworkable ideologies of the past without an iota logical thought. Brainwashed.